Best of opinion 2023: Housing special
Housing was a hot topic in 2023 – prices may have lowered a little (though by less than expected) but punishing mortgage rates and the impact of inflation have squeezed would-be buyers and sparked a mass landlord exodus. Renters’ rates have rocketed, up around 10 per cent year on year. All in all Londoners are left feeling they’ve been done dirty.
Politicians have started to realise that they can’t just blame brunching millennials for splurging on lattes instead of reusing teabags to save up for deposits like the boomers of yore. But the fact remains that it’s nigh on impossible for the average under 40 to think about buying in London – without significant support from a relative.
Our columnists dissected the problems and dreamed up the solutions in a dazzling variety of pieces this year. Here are some of the best:
Don’t fight the gentrification of areas like Brixton, it’s time to give in to the local Gail’s
Ben Hope, July 2023
As anti-gentrification activists opposed the building of a new tower block in Brixton culminating in a successful rejection of the project, columnist Ben Hope turned his pen against the urban Nimbys trying to stop the inevitable gentrification of Brixton:
“Soaring London house prices means it’s unrealistic to expect well-connected, central locations like Brixton not to cater to more monied residents over time. Every effort must be made to support those who are displaced, but “gentrifying” development projects should go ahead…”
Housing crisis is not just an issue for avo-loving millennials, but one for the UK at large
Andy Silvester, August 2023
As house prices dropped four per cent over a year, Morning Wire’s editor Andy Silvester mounts an offensive against the lack of ambition in housebuilding in Britain:
“House prices crash – first time buyers, rejoice? Hardly. The near four per cent fall over the past year takes house prices back to where they were only a couple of years ago; and with interest rates and therefore the price of mortgages rocketing, the end result is housing remaining out of reach for all too many prospective buyers. That’s not just a problem for those avocado-on-toast munching, Instagram-scrolling millennials and Gen Zers, but for the UK’s competitiveness at large.”
Yes, we should be building more tall buildings in London
Akhila Jayaram, June 2023
There’s no point opposing tall buildings for a place like London if we want people to move here and grow the city, Akhila Jayaram wrote:
“London accounts for 24 per cent of the UK’s economic output, with a rate of job growth rapidly beyond the rest of the UK. Naturally, many young professionals look to move to the capital to better their career prospects. When they arrive, they are faced with soaring rents, sometimes as much as 60 per cent of their monthly earnings. Despite this crisis, opposition to practically any new building or development project persists. Objections vary from the buildings being “too tall”, out of character, or even just being in the “wrong” area…”
The cranes of Manchester tell a tale of a city that said yes to Yimbyism
Lucy Kenningham, December 2023
Unlike London, Manchester does not have any height restrictions on its buildings leading to its victory over the rest of the UK to receive the award of Yimby City of 2023 by campaign group Priced Out. Lucy Kenningham explores how Manchester’s building boom could teach London a few lessons:
“London does a good job cosplaying as a tall and spiky city but it is far from, being restricted by crippling height restrictions, Manchester has none of these. As any semi-regular visitor to Manchester over the past few years will concur, the skyline becomes unrecognisable every few months due to the number of skyscrapers cropping up from Stretford to Islington Mill (accompanied, of course, by a sea of tastefully curated cranes)…”
We need more housing and braver, bigger ideas to revive our Square Mile
Adam Hawksbee, July 2023
HSBC’s announcement that it was moving out of Canary Wharf triggered a panic about office space in the City – would it trigger the decline of central areas? Adam Hawksbee of Onward makes the case for densifying our city centres with new homes:
“There is a way to save our city centres and tackle our housing crisis at the same time. We should be rapidly densifying our urban cores with new homes, turning the problem of under-used office space into an opportunity. The Square Mile, like other financial centres, needs to attract more footfall, or it will become a ghost town. The power is in local politicians’ hands, they just have to be brave.”
Yet another housing minister? It’ll alienate young professionals
Henry Hill, November 2023
As the UK was treated to its 16th – yes you read that right – housing minister since 2010 (goodbye Rachel Maclean, hello Lee Rowley), Henry Hill of Conservative Home exposes the insanity of ministerial churn:
“The political churn of ministers is doing nothing to solve the housing crisis, and it’s the young who are suffering. It’s a remarkably slapdash way to treat what is a critically important portfolio. The housing crisis is one of the biggest structural challenges facing the country: it devours people’s incomes, restricts labour mobility, and thwarts family formation. Politically, it is also one of the biggest factors behind the increasing total alienation of younger voters (and here “younger” means aged 40 or less) from the Tories.”
House prices will eventually start to fall, as long as owners accept their new reality
Paul Ormerod, August 2023
As projections of a drop in house prices grew over the course of this year, economist Paul Ormerod delivered his predictions for the future:
“House prices are on the rise because fewer people are selling, and fewer people are selling because they think their property has preserved its value. Once they give up, prices will fall.”
Politicians don’t understand housing and asylum seekers will pay the price
Elena Siniscalco, May 2023
The backlog of asylum cases in the country hit a new record high in March this year when more than 172,000 people were waiting for an initial decision on their asylum application – an increase of 57 per cent compared to the same time in 2022. Former deputy comment editor and housing reporter Elena Siniscalco argued the government’s plans to temporarily scrap HMO licensing for asylum seekers’ accommodation risk creating a set of dangerous sub-standard homes unfit for the future…